For such a small city (its 600,000 population is boosted each September with the arrival of 250,000 college students from around the globe) Boston certainly stuffs a lot in. Undoubtedly its greatest appeal for the unsuspecting tourist is its size.
Packed within a four mile radius are the North and South Ends, the theatre and financial districts, Back Bay, Charleston, Beacon Hill (the essence of "old" Boston), and Chinatown, where a mini-Pagoda adorns even the branch of McDonalds. Because of its compactness, Boston has earned its place as one of the great walking cities of the world. The only reason for a visitor to hail a taxi or to jump onto a bus is if they're in a hurry (perish the thought), it's raining (possibly), or if they're loaded down with shopping (definitely). Otherwise, Boston is footwear friendly.
For all its urbanity, Boston started out 350 years ago as a smaller, wetter, and hillier town. The city founder, John Winthrop, and the newly arrived Puritans discovered a peninsula of 738 acres that was connected to the mainland only by a narrow causeway, naming it Trimountain due to its three large hills. Some time after, the townsfolk named it Botulph's town in honour of a Benedictine monk from their old fishing village in England. Botulph's town was eventually whittled down to Boston, two of the three hills were leveled, and the third (now Beacon Hill) was flattened to create more land mass to build on. The leftover earth contributed to landfill projects which over the years have tripled the size of Boston to almost 50 square miles.
That's a lot of space to discover in five days, but if you're pushed for time you could partake in any one of several orienteering tours that quickly give perspective as well as a better understanding of the city's history. The most popular is the Old Town Trolley Tour, a 100 minute journey that takes you from one end of Boston to the next. The choice is yours as to what you want to see, and as there is so much to see anyway, you're spoiled for choice. The best stops are concentrated around the Charleston area, where the USS Constitution (nicknamed "Old Ironsides" for the strength of her oaken hull) is docked.
Launched in 1797, the Constitution is still a part of the US navy, making her the oldest commissioned warship in the world. As such, the men and women who work on her are regular naval personnel, albeit personnel who happen to be dressed in early 18th century uniform. Close by is the Bunker Hill Monument, where the views at the top of its 294 steps are worth the climb. (A multimedia show, The Whites Of Their Eyes, is on show in a pavilion near the Navy Yard entrance until November.) Boston is effectively a series of concentric circles around the State House, situated across from central Boston Common, the oldest public park in the US, and indisputably the largest and most famous of the town commons around which all New England settlements were once arranged. The oldest and most famous attractions are gathered within easy walking of the State House, whilst many historic landmarks are on the well-marked Freedom Trail (a mile and a half red-brick/red-painted path line around the city that leads visitors on a self-guided tour).
The most striking aspect of Boston as a city is its architecture. While some of its citizens amusingly complain about its overall structure ("Boston? It's a big urban planning dump - but it's a charming one," a barman told me in Jacob Wirths, a turn-of-the-century American tavern that resides in the city's theatre district) there are nevertheless many incredible buildings that juxtapose the old with the new. The Back Bay area is, perhaps, the most obvious illustration of this. The Copley Square is a civic space that is defined by three examples of splendid old buildings. The Copley Plaza Hotel dates from 1912, but it is both Trinity Church and the Boston Public Library that provide a daunting challenge to a more recent structural interloper, the John Hancock Tower.
The 62-storey building is the tallest in New England, and certainly the most geometrically unusual. Specifically designed not to cast a shadow on Trinity Church (hence its rhomboid shape) it dates from the early 1970s. The totally reflective tower is home to 13 acres of glass windows, a number of which actually popped out due to incorrectly specified wind torque estimates at its design stage. Completely safe these days, there is some 30 seconds on the Trolley Tour when, at a certain angle, the tower contracts into what appears to be a huge single pane of pointed, piercing glass. On a sunny day, the effect is eerie to say the least.
It's a visual trick that is analogous to the size of Boston: how does a city that is so reined in, reflect such a broad smile? Put it down to the diversity of its population. From the Mayflower Pilgrims in the 1620s and the African slaves in the 1630s to the influx of Irish, Italians, Chinese, Greeks, Poles, and Russians in the 1800s (by the 1920s, more than two third of Bostonians were of "foreign" stock) Boston revels in a multicultural mingling of varying styles. That said, an overwhelming majority of the population belong to the Democratic party, outweighing Republicans eight to one, while a staggering 70 per cent rent, as opposed to own, their homes and apartments. Is this a Puritan streak still coursing through the veins? Or the fact that not only does Boston boast the highest concentration of college education in America, but also that 30 per cent of its resident population have received a bachelor's degree or higher?
Who knows? Any city as cohesive as Boston deserves the occasional contradiction without recourse to retribution. As the Tour Trolley driver said to us as we were about to leave: "If you liked the tour, my name is Aaron. If you didn't it's Carl." No worries. I liked it. Lots.
